Just as what the title says, why is it compelling? For me anyway, it’s getting away from “doom scrolling”. it doesn’t remove me from my digital device as I can read zines online. But let’s roll back a bit first, what is a zine?

What is a zine?

A zine (pronounced zeen) is short for magazine, zines are self-published magazines with none of the ads you normally see in magazines (physical magazines, some newsagents and supermarkets still sell them but dramatically reduced over the years due to easy access to information with ubiquitous smart devices that (barely) fits in our pockets or hands.

You’ll find its origin stories from sci-fi fans producing zines of their favourite genre to punk including movements like Riot grrrl who brought feminism to punk scene, and used zines as a means to share and circulate information that normally would not be published in mainstream media.

Ok, ok, so why is it compelling?

🙌 Anyone can make a zine, the bare minimum is one sheet of A4 paper 📃, a pen 🖋️ and a pair of scissors✂️. And woohoo, you already nearly there making one of the popular zine formats… a mini-zine!

🪄 It may seen like magic, all you need to do is a few creases, one snip and fold it and the piece of A4 paper turns into an 8-page mini-zine!

Examples of a mini-zines

PyLadies Dublin Zine by whykay whykay.itch.io

References